A factory worker, working his way through college, clashes with his obsessive girlfriend while attempting to find out how a beautiful and mysterious woman ended up dead.

A disgraced soldier returns to his bleak Oklahoma hometown, where wind never stops and hope is gone. Murders feel like old debts. The prairie remembers what he buried, and the past waits for him.

An unflattering portrait of Ester Breen is unveiled. Walter, Ester's husband, is pleased with the horror of the guests' responses. Peter, Ester's boyfriend, just wants Ester to leave her husband to be with him. Bluster, the painter, is unhappy he is not revered as an artist. Jonathan Heck, art critic for the city paper, is under pressure to complete a review of the new portrait. No one is happy, someone is going to die. Everyone is enraged, fearful and in love.